Care to Dance
by ataraxis
Summary: SLASH HPSS Harry must get up the nerve to ask his crush for a dance.


TITLE: Care to Dance?  
  
AUTHOR: goldenpaw  
  
PAIRING: SS/HP  
  
RATING: PG  
  
FEEDBACK: Yes Please!!! goldenpaw72@livejournal.com  
  
DISCLAIMER: *sigh* Not mine. Some brilliant woman by the name of J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. owns the whole Harry Potter universe. I'm just borrowing him and the other characters for a little while, and then I'll send it all back only slightly warped.  
  
SUMMARY: Harry gets up the courage to ask Severus for a dance.  
  
NOTES: Part of the Dusk-Till-Dawn Fuh-Q Fest (First line challenge: "At least someone I know is having a good time.")  
  
WARNINGS: Be warned, there are NO spoilers.  
  
A/N: Thanks go to Sher for her beta reading my story and Taran for his moral support.  
  
ARCHIVING: The Dusk-Till-Dawn Fuh-Q Fest Archive until the end of the fest, then anywhere asked.  
  
Care to Dance? by goldenpaw  
  
"At least someone I know is having a good time," Harry said out loud to no one in particular, as he watched his two best friends slow dance together to a very romantic song. He sighed again as he looked longingly towards his Potions Professor.  
  
It was his last year at Hogwarts and the Valentine's Day dance was well underway, and he felt that the one person he wanted to share the day with couldn't possibly want to share the day with him. Snape, or Severus as he liked to call the man in his private thoughts, was off to the side of the Great Hall looking out over the dancers, with a look of loathing instead of the longing look Harry was sure was plastered over his own face.  
  
Harry, for all of his Gryffindor courage -- he had in fact defeated Voldemort over the Christmas hols -- couldn't get up the nerve to ask his Professor to the dance. That was if it had even been permissible, which it was not. He still could have let his interest in the older man at least be known. Harry wandered away from his dark corner and went to the table he and the other seventh year Gryffindors were sharing. Everyone from his year were out on the dance floor and he was envious. He'd been asked by several of the girls from his house and others, but his heart hadn't been in it and therefore he'd declined each and every invitation. He'd told no one of his fascination for Professor Snape, not even Ron or Hermione. He thought the Headmaster might know about it, seeing as how every time he invited Harry to a meeting of some sort in his office, Severus was often to be found there as well, but he wasn't a hundred percent sure in that assumption.  
  
Harry played with the bag of little heart candies that had been at his seat, and opened them to read what they had to say. They were magical in nature and not like muggle ones, where the message was imprinted and never changed. Instead, these were like little electronic billboards that had long messages that scrolled across the tiny heart.  
  
The first one read, "Follow your heart, it will lead you to the right person." The second read, "The person you love will certainly return your feelings, but only if you tell them how you feel."  
  
Harry looked around to make sure no one was playing with him or tampering with his candies. He picked up and read the third one, "Don't just sit there all evening, get up and ask him to dance."  
  
At this, Harry dropped the candies as if they were hot coals and looked once more around him to see if someone were playing a joke. No one seemed to be paying him any mind and his paranoia abated a bit.  
  
He looked once more at Severus Snape and saw the man hadn't moved one step out of place from the last time Harry had looked at him. Harry, of course, had failed to notice the quick glances Severus had sent his way through the curtain of his long black hair.  
  
Harry continued to look around at his friends, who were still dancing and then over to where the other Professors were gathered as they chaperoned the dance. No one seemed to be paying Severus any attention and somehow Harry thought that was very wrong. Severus deserved attention. And with that thought in mind, Harry gathered up what little courage he could, and went to beard the lion -- or snake rather -- in its den.  
  
Harry skirted the outer edges of the room and came up to Severus from the right. He didn't think he had been spotted approaching the man, but little was he to know that Severus watched every step he took with great attention.  
  
"Um, hello, Professor," Harry said. He stood off at an angle so that the older man would know he was there, yet so as not to block the other man's view of the room.  
  
"Potter," was the only response he received.  
  
Harry twitched internally at hearing the low, velvety tones. He was surprised that it had taken him over six years to realize just how wonderful the man's voice really was. Cultured and caressing was how he liked to think of it, even when it was at its most venomous.  
  
"I was just wondering how the evening was going for you, sir?" Harry questioned as politely and as respectfully as he could. He didn't want to be shot down before he could even get up the nerve to ask the one question he really wanted to ask.  
  
"I would rather be dissecting frogs for potion ingredients, but overall the evening is tolerable. The music they are playing is deplorable, but then I've never cared for dancing much to whatever was popular, even in my school years." Severus thought it only polite to return the question, "How is your evening going, Mr. Potter? I've noticed that you're not dancing like the rest of your friends. Did you not ask anyone to the dance?"  
  
"Um, no, sir. Several of the girls in seventh year asked me to be their date when they'd heard I'd not invited anyone to the dance, but I told them all no." Harry took a deep breath to steel himself and decided to dive in head first. "The reason I'm not here with anyone was because the person I wanted to ask, I couldn't. I mean I could, but not really. It's not allowed in the school rules."  
  
"Ah, but Mr. Potter, you've always broken the school rules, why not one more?" Severus turned his head away from Harry a fraction and gave a tiny smile of happiness. Severus may have seemed a forceful personality in the classroom, but when it came to relationships of the heart, he was a pacifist. He was timid and uncertain of his attraction, not knowing that he had many traits that others found fascinating and desirable, and therefore he camoflauged this part of his personality with being an unbearable git.  
  
"Well, that's why I'm standing here now, Professor. I was wondering if, well, if you'd care to dance?" Harry stammered out his question in haste and in one breath. When he was done asking, he inhaled sharply and held his breath in anticipation and dread of the answer he would receive.  
  
"No, Mr. Potter. I would not care to dance," Severus paused and toyed a bit with Harry's emotions before continuing, "at least, not to this miserable music. Perhaps if you were to visit me later, say after this miserable excuse for a Valentine's party is over, we could have our own private dance?"  
  
Harry had at first paled when he'd heard Severus say no, but then his smile blossomed forth as Severus finished and clarified his response. Harry just nodded his head, as he was at a loss for words at hearing his crush respond so positively to his request.  
  
Harry thought it best that he not draw too much attention to the two of them, so he turned to go back to his table once more, but before he took a step forward he heard whispered behind him, "Oh, and Harry? Call me Severus."  
  
Harry's smile brightened even more and he was elated that he would get to have his dance after all, in private where no one else could see.  
  
From across the crowded room, Albus Dumbledore saw everything that had taken place between Harry and Severus, and his eyes twinkled happily that things were finally going right for his two best boys. 


End file.
